100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki
by thoughts fade
Summary: One hundred short little drabbles about those two heros from our childhoods. Theme 008: We'll see.
1. Introduction

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 001: Introduction-

They were Digimon Tamers, and always would be, no matter what happened. He was the king, and remained as such all those years later, even if that card game of their childhood had lost its popularity long ago. She was his queen, and absolutely despised being second best, but she knew that she would always be his number one. Their love was not at all like the ones you would find in those stereotypical romance dramas, and they could not care less, because he was Ryou and she was Ruki, and that was all that mattered.

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Haruka: Intended to be short and simple as a way for me to get back into writing. Updates depend on response from, you, the reader. This is something I can probably work on frequently…unlike everything else I've been trying to work on.


	2. Love

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 002: Love-

She had always avoided love, afraid that it would hurt her time and time again. He had always embraced it, feeding off the affection of his fans. She shut herself away from others, not wanting to feel the pain that she believed friends and family would surely bring. He made himself the center of attention, distracting himself from being dimension-sick and forcing himself to accept it as the only kind of love there was. He flirted with her endlessly, believing that giving her constant attention was love; she opened up slowly, but still needed some time for herself. But, through all of this, each one learned what it really meant to love someone.

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Haruka: Drabbles are so much easier to write. List of themes sent to me by a friend. I see it as a really useful exercise to help spark my creativity. Much love to the reviewers.


	3. Light

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 003: Light-

She groans as she pulls her covers over her head, turning to lie on her side. She hates the light streaming into her room through the traditional styled paper screen doors; it is too blindingly bright and makes her tired eyes burn.

He wakes up early, eager to meet the sun and embrace its warm rays of light. He loves when dawn finally comes and slowly illuminates his room. The light gives him energy and makes him feel alive, lifting his mood, preparing him for a new day.

She groans once more as her cell phone vibrates and rings with no intentions of answering. The ringing continues, stops, and starts again. She uses her better judgment, and, rather than hurling the small object across the room, grabs it, presses a button and demands to know what the being on the other end wants. He greets her with a 'good morning, Ruki' and informs her that he has accomplished his task. "You're like the light, Ryou," she tells him, hanging up before he has a chance to respond. Naturally, he takes it as a compliment.

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Haruka: Would you guys prefer if I uploaded multiple themes for each chapter or individually as I am currently doing? Please let me know :)

I don't think I've written fan fiction in present tense before. Hopefully I didn't revert to past tense by accident.

Two months late; sorry! I forgot to upload it DX. –cough- Remind me through reviews. –cough-


	4. Dark

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 004: Dark-

(A/N: They're younger for this theme.)

The ten year old boy makes his way through Shinjuku Park. He wanders aimlessly in attempts to cure himself of his boredom, hoping to discover something even the slightest bit intriguing.

The six year old girl conceals herself, determined to win the game of hide and seek. The stakes are too high; she cannot afford to lose. The sun is hidden behind the clouds and trees.

He strays from the trail that weaves through the trees and comes across a small building. He makes his way towards it, curious. He stumbles backwards when he reaches the small gate, startled to see another person.

She looks up from the back of the cave-like structure, afraid that she has been found. She breathes a sigh of relief when she realizes that it is not who she expected.

He opens the gate and walks to her. She frowns and gives him a questioning stare, unable to make out his features. He asks her, "What are you doing all the way back here?"

"I'm hiding," she states, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

"Aren't you afraid of the dark?" he wonders.

"N-no," her voice falters slightly. He notices.

"What are you hiding from? Is there a monster?" He moves to sit beside her.

"I'm playing hide and seek. If my friend can't find me before dinner time, he has to give me his toy. The stores don't have them anymore! They're really mean!" she informs him.

He smiles, "What toy is it? It must be a really good one if you're hiding in such a scary place."

"I-it's not scary. I'm not scared!" He feels her tremble the tiniest bit beside him.

She remembers his question, "It's a limited edition Digimon toy that looks like Agumon." She doesn't expect him to understand, even if he's taller than her; she used big words after all.

He smiles at her again and pulls something out of his pocket, holding it towards the small ray of light that escaped the shadows of the clouds, "Do you mean this?" Her eyes widen and sparkle as she takes the figurine into her own hands. She nods. "You can have it, if you'd like," he offers. If possible, her eyes grow even larger. "If I give it to you, you can go home and leave this place, right?" She nods again.

"I'm Ryou, by the way. What's your name?"

"…Ruki," she answers without taking her eyes off of her treasure.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Ruki, but I think you need to go home now. It's starting to get dark outside."

She freezes for a split second before standing up. She mumbles a quick 'thank you' and dashes out the gate towards home, grateful for more than just the gift. He catches a glimpse of a fiery red pineapple before he, too, gets up to leave.

Ironically enough, she would unknowingly come to find the light that had saved her from the dark that day highly annoying.

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Haruka: Come on, guys. There have been 55 visitors to this story in August alone and six reviews. I would really appreciate some feedback so that I can improve :3. Thanks to those who did spare a moment to drop me a message (:.

Also, I know Ruki seems really out of character, but please keep in mind that she's a midget, her dad is still around, and she's just another happy-go-lucky kid :D.


	5. Seeking Solace

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 005: Seeking Solace-

(A/N: I seem to have gotten addicted to writing the two of them as kids. Takes place a few months to a year after the last one.)

The six year old runs through the streets, crying.

"_Mommy, where's daddy?"_

"_Daddy left, Ruki."_

"_Where did he go?"_

"_He's gone."_

"_But where did he go? I'll go tell him to come home."_

"_You can't do that, Ruki. He won't—he _can't_ come back."_

"_But why not? Daddy's big. He can do anything!"_

She reaches the playground in Shinjuku Park, still crying.

"_Mommy? Why is daddy in a box?"_

"_He's resting."_

"_Can I rest in a box, too?"_

"_No, you may not."_

"_But it looks so comfy! There're flowers, too!"_

She keeps running, crying, clutching a small yellow object in one hand, rubbing her eyes dry with the other.

"_Mommy! What are they doing to daddy's box?! Why are they covering it in dirt?"_

"_They're burying him, Ruki."_

"_But why? Won't it be dark?"_

"_He's—" Rumiko begins to sob, "Dead."_

She hasn't stopped running since realization had dawned on her. Young as she is, she knows that 'dead' is a bad thing. 'Dead' makes people sad and makes them cry. 'Dead' took her father away.

She reaches the familiar gate, the place that had recently become her sanctuary. She pulls the gate open and runs inside the small space, pulling it shut behind her. Still running, she moves towards the back, but trips over a rock, dropping Agumon in the process.

"…Ruki?" calls a groggy voice. She had stumbled over his leg. He steadies her before she can fall and picks up the dropped figurine, handing it to her. He hears her sniffling, "What's wrong?"

"Dead."

"Dead? What's dead?"

"Dead took daddy away."

His eyes widen and he quickly wraps his arms around her, "It's okay. It's okay."

She eventually falls asleep and he lays her gently against the wall. After awhile, he hears a woman's voice in the distance shouting 'Ruki! Ruki!" The sound grows louder. He lifts the girl carefully and brings her outside.

'That must be her mother,' he thinks. He sees a head of blonde hair and walks down the stone steps towards it. She sees her daughter and runs to the boy, taking her from his arms.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay. Thank you for finding her…" she trails off.

"Ryou. Akiyama Ryou. You must be Ruki's mother…?" he says politely.

"Yes. Thank you, Ryou, for finding her," she bows in appreciation.

"Ryou…is….the best," the girl mumbles, still half asleep. He smiles, as does the mother, before she turns around and returns home with her daughter.

She had run, seeking solace, but instead, she found something better than what she had expected: Ryou.

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Haruka: Much love, you guys, for reviewing~ I've already replied directly to everyone with the exception of anon.

Anon: As I've mentioned at the start of this project, all of the themes are coming from a list my friend sent me, so I've been trying to see where I could incorporate your ideas. If anything, they'll be used in one of my other Ryou/Ruki stories :).

After the last chapter, I started having more fun with this so I'll treat it as an actual story and not a writing exercise from now on (:. It's only been two days since the last update…that's a first :D;. If you see any inconsistencies with tenses or grammar errors, please let me know. I might not have caught all of the mistakes.

Also, upon checking, I realized that I haven't updated INJYTV for a month shy of two years. For those following it (still), I'm trying, but I keep running into Writer's Block DX. I will definitely get it up before September 14, 2009.


	6. Break Away

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 006: Break Away-

It's tiresome, really. Fame is such a hassle, an inconvenience. I appreciate the fans…honestly, I do. Their support makes such a difference during tournaments. I'm amazing, sure, but a little extra help never hurts. When the crowd is cheering you on and encouraging you…more than not letting yourself down, you can't let the fans down. Oh, and the opponent always gets a bit more flustered, a little more panicked, a tad more careless…but I'm tired of it. The constant attention, the lack of privacy…do you know how hard it is to keep Cyberdramon hidden when there are eyes, eyes everywhere, eyes constantly watching you?

…that was eight years ago, right before I took off for the digital world, when I finally got away from the attention. At first, it was a huge relief…but it grew to be incredibly lonely. The days were quiet, the long journeys, silent. Cyberdramon wasn't…isn't much of a talker. A lot has happened since the D-reaper incident and, well, now we're here, eight years later. Akiyama Ryou, twenty-three years old, former Digimon tamer and king, hero boy, currently famous actor and heart throb, reporting. Oh, and dating the loveliest, most beautiful person in the world; I promise I'm not lying. She's a model; it can't be helped.

Not much has changed, really. I took a break from the spotlight, but in the end, I couldn't break away from the need for attention. I'm still famous (but on a larger scale), still young (but I've matured, really), still saving Ruki (but from paparazzi and perverts, not digital data deleting red blobs of doom), still-

"…_I do _not_ need saving, Akiyama."_

-she's still refusing to call me by my first name (but she does slip up sometimes), still-

"_Why are you writing in a diary anyway?" Ruki asks._

"_It's not a diary! It's a journal! There's a difference!" he retorts, ignoring her question._

I've matured. I swear.

"_No, you haven't. You're as childish as ever."_

I keep getting interrupted, sorry, journal. I'm still flirting with Ruki (but I can kiss her without being slapped now!), still always-

"_This isn't flirting and I will slap you the next time you kiss me if you miss it so much," she says. He makes a face and pouts at her._ _She rolls her eyes, "Real mature, Akiyama, real mature. Anyway, I thought you had a talk show taping today."_

_He glances at the time, curses, and drops his journal and his pen as he jumps up from the couch and rushes to get ready to leave. Ruki just shakes her head and laughs at his predicament as she picks up the things he dropped._

-late to everything, be it to save the world or come to my birthday party, but if he can make it to all of our dates on time, I guess I can forgive him…I'll still slap him later for being such a child…why is he writing in this anyway?

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Haruka: In the end, the second it changed from an exercise to a real story, I failed at updating; sorry! I hope the formatting wasn't too confusing; I didn't really want to put the journal entries in italics since it might get tiring to read or something. Ryou's journal is in normal font and the actual interactions and dialogues are in italics. If there's an actual standardized way to write something like this, do tell, but as far as I'm aware, it's a style issue.

My last status update was April 2010...um, life happened, motivation disappeared, etc.

Recently I've been inspired to write again by CP Coulter and TheVulpineHero1; CP Coulter, because of her wonderfully crafted Dalton universe and TheVulpineHero1 because he was able to write more than 100 one-shots and drabbles in his Vincent/Yuffie collection. The competitive part of me told me that I couldn't lose to that. I couldn't just let his story sit there and rub it in my face that I wasn't able to finish 100 Moments and 100 Themes. The creative part of me really wanted to, well, create something again...a universe of my own, or something. Aaaand, here we are. I'm writing again...but I haven't written for fun in so long that my writing has deteriorated even further (wasn't amazing to begin with, so I'm apologizing for anything terrible you happen to read). While I would very much like to start a new story (fanfiction and/or fiction), I'm the type of person who can't leave things unfinished. I also do want to write the remainder of the themes for this collection since I do find it to be entertaining.

I was considering deleting old stories and creating a new account altogether for a fresh start, but I don't think you can improve unless you know where you've been in the past. I'm definitely not proud of anything written prior to August 2007...I still cringe every time I try to read through them. I ask that you please pretend that they do not exist. My completed stories' descriptions have been updated accordingly; note the "cringe-worthy".

That said, I've changed my pen name once more. Please feel free to stick around and come along for the ride, however bumpy it may be :)

Theme 007 will be up soon as it has already been written. It just needs to be typed and proofread.

I do realize that this author's note is as long, if not longer, than Theme 006 itself, but this collection was always intended to be a set of one shots and drabbles and I really did want to explain and apologize for the huge delay. I'm not sure if anyone's still around or if anyone's still reading Ruki/Ryou stories, but if you're seeing this, thank you for reading!


	7. Heaven

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 007: Heaven-

He wonders how anyone can think about paradise at a time like this; when that precious person is beside you and holding you, clutching and clinging onto you as if her life depended on it. "Oh…life," he thinks bitterly. He looks at her face, streaked in tears, and silently reprimands himself for making her cry as his legs are broken down into data and vanish in the digital breeze.

He sees her lips moving and knows she's speaking, but he can't process anything more than "idiot," stupid," "moron," and "why did you let yourself get shot," because she's punctuating all of her angrily whispered statements with rushed and desperate kisses and, really, how can anyone expect him to think when his lips are bruised and all feeling has left the lower half of his body?

He smiles his trademark smile when she pulls away and, had she not been supporting his torso, she would have slapped him. She casts a glance at the rest of his form, but turns back to him quickly because his stomach is starting to fade away; and there's not much time left and her thoughts are a mess; and how could he do this to her, how could he be so heartless. She opens her mouth to demand answers from him, but he silences her when he lifts his hand to her face, wiping away some of the tears with his thumb. She knows that, had the circumstances been different, she would have pushed his arm away, violet eyes flashing.

She lets him cup her face, lets him pull her down close and whisper, "I'm sorry. I love you, Ruki," and lets him undo her spiky ponytail and cause her fiery hair to fall around their heads. She lets him close the gap between them as she takes in his features once more: his face, his lovely blue eyes, the way some of his brown hair falls over his forehead in that perfect way that he knows she secretly adores; and she lets him kiss her slowly, delicately, as she squeezes her eyes shut, tears still falling, but she doesn't let him pull away, doesn't let him break apart from her even as his body is falling to pieces and her lungs are running out of air, doesn't let his hand leave her face as she holds it firmly in place; because these will be their last seconds together and she knows that he's gone when the warmth against her lips and the warmth against her cheek disappear. She stays still for a moment more before forcing herself up and forcing her legs to support her weight because she's strong enough to not turn into a useless mess, there's still a battle to be won, and she knows that that's what he wants to see from up there, where he's safe and sound; but she doesn't know that he doesn't believe in that wonderful after life because he just left heaven for the last time.

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Haruka: Apologies if I sacrificed proper English grammar anywhere in my poor attempt to capture the rushed/confused/on-a-battlefield/amidst-the-chaos mood!  
I didn't want to update until I'd written the next one, but alas, I'm a bit stuck with the theme. Hopefully I'll come up with something soon!


	8. Innocence

100 Themes: Akiyama Ryou x Makino Ruki

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-Theme 008: Innocence-

"Don't you dare go easy on me, Akiyama," Ruki threatens as she prepares for their rematch.

"There is no way I'm giving you my Cyberdramon; you don't need to worry," Ryou replies, shuffling his cards.

"Of course not; I'll be taking it from you when I win," she tells him, still in disbelief that it had taken her so long to come up with the idea of using antes.

He just smiles his trademark smile, "We'll see."

Naturally, it comes as a shock to Ryou when he discovers that he has lost two hours later. It was one thing to let Ruki win, but it was a completely different matter when she won fair and square. He gapes at her as she reaches over to take his cards and searches for Cyberdramon; she glances up at him briefly before bursting into laughter. "Your expression right now is priceless," she explains when his countenance changes to one of confusion. She finds her prize, adds it to her own cards, and smirks at him, but her victory is cut short as a phone rings in the next room. She frowns and reluctantly gets up to answer it.

Ryou waits to hear the 'hello?' from the other room before he quickly returns Cyberdramon to its rightful place. Soft footsteps grow louder. He pockets his cards and leans against the wall nonchalantly.

"Wrong number," Ruki says, annoyed, as she sits back down. She moves to put her own cards away, but stops short, her hand hovering over her deck. She eyes the boy sitting across from her suspiciously; he feigns a look of innocence. She sees right through it; that guise never fails to make him look guiltier. She sighs and he knows that she's caught him; it's a testament to how well they've gotten to know each other over the years. She inches toward him, "Ryou."

"What?" he chooses to keep up the act, regardless of the fact that it's futile. Ruki corners him and, okay, in retrospect, it was probably a stupid idea to lean against the wall and he definitely should have seen this coming.

"Stop being a sore loser. It's not nice to take what isn't yours. That's called stealing," her face is inches from his.

He breaks eye contact and looks down nervously, only to see her reaching for…his _pants' pocket?_ He looks back up at her and his mouth falls open, incredulous. She rolls her eyes and pulls out her cell phone to take a photo, "Keep it. Cyberdramon doesn't complement my strategies well. Besides, your face in this picture is prize enough." He sighs in relief and smiles sweetly at her. He'll worry about the humiliation the picture will surely bring later, but right now, he is going to make the most out of how his girlfriend is right in front of him and how her lips look terribly tempting.

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Haruka: Okay, that was quite terrible but if it helps, I didn't kill Ryou off again!


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